Rodney Wilfred Brook

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Verified

Rodney verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

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• Masters of Science
• Research Biologist at Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources

In many regions of Canada, knowledge of the distribution of insect species is far from complete. This knowledge gap, known as the Wallacean Shortfall, is often manifest by species records separated by large, often remote areas with no records. Paradoxically, these difficult-to-access areas offer the best opportunity to study unaltered native commun...

Following the detection of novel highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b in Newfoundland, Canada, in late 2021, avian influenza virus (AIV) surveillance in wild birds was scaled up across Canada. Herein, we present the results of Canada’s Interagency Surveillance Program for Avian Influenza in Wild Birds during the first...

Wildlife disease surveillance, particularly for pathogens with zoonotic potential such as Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Virus (HPAIV), is critical to facilitate situational awareness, inform risk, and guide communication and response efforts within a One Health framework. This study evaluates the intensity of avian influenza virus (AIV) surveil...

Following detection of novel highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b in Newfoundland, Canada in late 2021, avian influenza surveillance in wild birds was scaled-up across Canada. Herein, we present results of Canada's Interagency Surveillance Program for Avian Influenza in wild birds during the first year (November 2021...

Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) are an important wildlife food resource for Cree people living in communities along the James Bay coasts. According to Traditional Ecological Knowledge, environmental changes along the coast have affected hunting success. Also, changes in the relative abundance of different goose populations that use James Bay may a...

Estimates of demographic parameters for lesser snow geese Anser caerulescens caerulescens have become critical to understand ecosystem change in northern Canada. Exponential increase in abundance has produced hyperdensities of these herbivores that can affect Arctic ecosystem stability through intense foraging. Increased and sustained marking of in...

Demographic probabilities such as annual survival and harvest probability are key metrics used in research and for monitoring the health of wildlife populations and sustainability of harvest. For waterfowl populations, mark-recovery analysis is used to derive annual estimates of these probabilities using data from coordinated banding operations. Th...

In rare circumstances during research or monitoring operations for wild birds, emergency euthanasia is required. However, standard methods of euthanasia may not be humane for large birds. We evaluated the use of a Dick KTBG® spring‐powered, penetrating captive bolt for the euthanasia of Canada geese (Branta canadensis). We conducted trials on hunte...

Monitoring population trends for bird species in the Arctic and sub-Arctic can be difficult and cost prohibitive. Breeding populations of birds in these remote locations may be changing and have garnered much attention regarding their conservation. We analyzed data from bird lists (daily species observations) collected while conducting other target...

Conservation status and management priorities are often informed by population trends. Trend estimates can be derived from population surveys or models, but both methods are associated with sources of uncertainty. Many Arctic-breeding shorebirds are thought to be declining based on migration and/or overwintering population surveys, but data are lac...

Mortality rates for precocial avian species are highest during their first year of life. For harvested species, including waterfowl, it is particularly difficult to determine causes of mortality using standard mark–recapture techniques. The timing and cause of nonhunting mortality is difficult for researchers to distinguish, and therefore, difficul...

Northern Ontario, Canada, is one of the few places in North America with little to no data on the local/resident bumble bee fauna. This region is rich in mineral resources and is at risk of being developed for resource extraction before its fauna are catalogued. We report on 220 individuals from 11 species of bumble bees (Bombus spp.) collected as...

Seasonal declines in breeding performance are widespread in wild animals, resulting from temporal changes in environmental conditions or from individual variation. Seasonal declines might drive selection for early breeding, with implications for other stages of the annual cycle. Alternatively, selection on the phenology of nonbreeding stages could...

The Arctic is experiencing rapidly warming temperatures, increasing predator abundance, and diminishing population cycles of keystone species such as lemmings. However, it is still not known how many Arctic animals will respond to a changing climate with altered trophic interactions. We studied clutch size, incubation duration, and nest survival of...

Seasonal declines in breeding performance are widespread in wild animals, resulting from temporal changes in environmental conditions or from individual variation. Seasonal declines might drive selection for early breeding, with implications for other stages of the annual cycle. Alternatively, selection on the phenology of nonbreeding stages could...

American black ducks (Anas rubripes) are a harvested, international migratory waterfowl species in eastern North America. Despite an extended period of restrictive harvest regulations, the black duck population is still below the population goal identified in the North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP). It has been hypothesized that densit...

The extent to which species are plastic in the timing of their reproductive events relative to phenology suggests how climate change might affect their demography. An ecological mismatch between the timing of hatch for avian species and the peak availability in quality and quantity of forage for rapidly growing offspring might ultimately affect rec...

Night-lighting is a common technique used to capture waterfowl, upland birds, and waterbirds. The method involves using bright artificial light and a steady loud noise to startle and confuse birds, allowing close approach and capture by hand or with a long-handled dip-net. Many researchers using this technique have noticed that moon phase (or relat...

In migratory birds, population-genetic structure is generally low, but philopatric species can have fine-scale patterns of differentiation. We investigated the population-genetic structure of the Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) across multiple spatial scales to determine whether genetic data support current delineations of subspecies and populatio...

Nesting migratory geese are among the dominant herbivores in (sub) arctic environments, which have undergone unprecedented increases in temperatures and plant growing days over the last three decades. Within these regions, the Hudson Bay Lowlands are home to an overabundant breeding population of lesser snow geese that has dramatically damaged the...

Concern about declining populations of sea ducks counted on the wintering grounds prompted a survey of sea ducks on the breeding grounds in the Hudson Bay Lowlands of Ontario in spring 2009. We estimated densities of breeding scoters (Surf Scoter, Melanitta perspicillata, White-winged Scoter, M. fusca, and Black Scoter, M. americana) and found the...

Organisms that reproduce in temperate regions have limited time to produce offspring successfully, and this constraint is expected to be more pronounced in areas with short growing seasons. Information concerning how reproductive ecology of endotherms might be influenced by growing season length (GSL) is rare, and species that breed over a broad ge...

Many common bird species have declined as a result of agricultural intensification and this could be mitigated by organic farming. We paired sites for habitat and geographical location on organic and nonorganic farms in Ontario, Canada to test a priori predictions of effects on birds overall, 9 guilds and 22 species in relation to candidate models...

Avian Conservation and Ecology Home | Archives | About | Login | Submissions | Subscribe | Contact | Search ACE HOME > VOL. 6, NO. 1 > ART. 5 Copyright © 2011 by the author(s). Published here under license by The Resilience Alliance. Go to the pdf version of this article The following is the established format for referencing this article: Kirk, D...

One hypothesis advanced to explain the decline in lesser scaup (Aythya affinis) populations during the past 20 years is that adult female survival has decreased. However, no survival probability estimates exist for the boreal forest, the region where most scaup breed. We captured and radio-marked female lesser scaup (n = 42) near Yellowknife, North...

Numbers of Black Brant (Branta bernicla nigricans) have declined dramatically in at least one important breeding area in the Western Canadian Arctic (WCA) and the regional population is small and widely scattered. The overall Pacific Flyway Population, to which the WCA Brant belong, has declined historically as well, probably in part due to high ra...

Little is known about wetland selection by Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis) during any phase of the breeding cycle, particularly in the northern boreal forest region, where most of the North American population of scaup breeds. We used survey data (1989-98) for 402 wetlands near Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada to assess frequency of scaup b...

We assessed potential factors contributing to variation in counts of staging Bonaparte’s Gulls (Larus philadelphia) on the Niagara River in southern Ontario. Much of the Mississippi Flyway population of this species stages each autumn at this site, en route to the Gulf coast and Mexico. Between 1986-96, weekly or bi-weekly counts were made of gulls...

We explored predictive models relating body condition and age to nesting propensity, timing of nest initiation, clutch size of first nests, aggregated nest survival, hatching success, and timing of hatch in Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos). Nesting propensity had a positive linear relationship with body condition, and second-year (SY) females had a lo...

One of the proposed explanations for the recent continental decline in Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis) populations is that females experience lower survival or reproduction resulting from exposure to contaminants in their diet of exotic bivalves during migration and over winter. In 1999, we collected eggs and females from five sites in the boreal for...

The Mississippi Flyway midwinter population survey (MWS) indicates that American black ducks (Anas rubripes) have been rapidly declining for the last 10 years. We found a negative relationship between MWS and Ontario ( Canada) midwinter counts for black ducks. Thus, as number of black ducks in the MWS decreased, Ontario midwinter counts increased....

Most waterfowl nesting failure in the prairie biome is attributed to predation. However, the contribution of small mammal abundance to the prairie predatorprey cycle and how this affects waterfowl productivity is not known. We modelled seasonal variability of nesting success, including a number of habitat and nest-related variables, to quantify inf...

Researchers routinely assume that samples of trapped or captured animals are representative of the overall population, though these assumptions are not always evaluated. We used decoy-trapped Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis) to assess the reliability of classifying females as yearlings or adults from a distance, based on documented age-related eye-col...

Populations of Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis) have declined markedly in North America since the early 1980s. When considering alternatives for achieving population recovery, it would be useful to understand how the rate of population growth is functionally related to the underlying vital rates and which vital rates affect population growth rate the...

2005: Effects of small mammals cycles on productivity of boreal ducks. -Wildl. Biol. 11: 3-11. North American boreal nesting waterfowl (and their eggs and ducklings) share a number of generalist predators with small mammals and non-migratory birds that could indirectly link fluctuations in these coexisting prey. We surveyed pairs and broods to dete...

One hypothesis advanced to explain the decline in lesser scaup (Aythya affinis) populations during the past 20 years is that adult female survival has decreased. However, no survival probability estimates exist for the boreal forest, the region where most scaup breed. We captured and radio-marked female lesser scaup (n = 42) near Yellowknife, North...

One of the proposed explanations for the recent continental decline in Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis) populations is that females experience lower survival or reproduction resulting from exposure to contaminants in their diet of exotic bivalves during migration and over winter. In 1999, we collected eggs and females from five sites in the boreal for...

Forty-seven wild female Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis) were marked with nasal markers and radio transmitters (implanted subcutaneously on the back) just prior to breeding near Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, in 1999 and 2000. Retention rates of both marker types were evaluated, and their effects on specific behavior categories were assessed b...